Victory for Nigeria and Hope for Missing Girls

Peace Corps Connections and Ebola

Peace Corps volunteers are known for their dedication to the people of the countries where they served. Sometimes the dedication extends to the next generation. Jack and Teresita Finlay, members of Friends of Nigeria, sent an email today about Ebola. I’ve changed their quote a little to make it more readable.

They said, “Our CDC doc daughter just returned from her TDY (temporary duty) in Guinea, where the epidemic rages on. The developed world has to take this seriously! Or soon folks will be asking, ‘Is it because it’s happening on the Dark Continent?’ It isn’t, is it?”

Like Jack and Teresita, I hate to think that’s the case. But it is certainly true that many of us did not pay attention to Ebola until it was right here in the United States. Chuck Larson and Vinnie Ferraro both questioned why we couldn’t respond more quickly as a country, as I reported a few days ago.

Why do we respond to a tsunami in Indonesia or earthquake in Japan, but not a disease in Africa? What do you think?

Chic Dambach posted a link to an article about his friend from Columbus Ohio who is on his way to help with the Ebola outbreak. Both Chic and his friend were also Peace Corps volunteers, though not in Nigeria. Chic’s friend Rick has been a stay-at-home dad and is leaving his husband and their two daughters behind to lend his skills in Liberia.

Nigeria is Ebola Free

Even though the disease is still raging elsewhere, there is good news from Nigeria about Ebola. The World Health Organization has declared Nigeria and Senegal officially free of Ebola. I first read that this would happen from Vinnie Ferraro’s blog three days ago. Yesterday it was confirmed by the BBC. And today the news was everywhere!

Financial Times has consistently great articles about Nigeria. This quote is from a Financial Times article today produced by William Wallis in Lagos. “Nigeria has made huge leaps over the past decade and a half to become Africa’s biggest economy. It has done this amid chronic power deficits, rampant corruption and a brutal Islamist insurgency.”

Wallis asks what Nigeria could achieve if its people pulled together as they did to defeat Ebola. What an amazing place it would be. I long for that day. Though it won’t happen in my lifetime, maybe it will for my children or grandchildren! Maybe they will help make it happen.

The Chibok Girls

But the Chibok girls are still missing.

According to CNN, the government announced last Friday that they had reached an agreement with Boko Haram and would finalize details for the release of the girls very soon. Another source (I can’t remember which) said that the final agreement would be made at a meeting in Chad on Tuesday – that’s tomorrow (or today by the time you’re reading)!

As Vinnie Ferraro says, “The deal would be a tremendous victory for the government of Goodluck Jonathan.”

What news will Tuesday bring?